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Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: June 11, 2008
PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: Top Chef, “Finale, Part 2” (Season 4, Episode 14) [Stream on Hulu]
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: One of the most consistent undercurrents of Top Chef — one which rarely manifests itself overtly but which is almost always present — is the gender politics of the world of elite chefs. You could say that the whole idea of a show like Top Chef comes from the concept of chefs as macho rock stars that’s been cultivated by the likes of Anthony Bourdain. As a reality competition, Top Chef always started out their seasons as gender balanced, but the male chefs always seemed to rise to the top while female chefs were so often cannon fodder. Men got rewarded for brashness while women were branded bitches, tale as old as time. Men were significantly overrepresented in the end games of most Top Chef seasons, while women had to fight for a spot in the finals.
At the same time, the women of Top Chef have been far from shrinking violets. From Tiffani Faison in its first season through most recent champion Brooke Williamson, the female chefs of the Top Chef universe have been rock stars of their own right. But especially in those early seasons, they could never seem to win.
Top Chef‘s fourth season was set up to be the biggest test to this male dominance. Bravo likely realized that having a franchise where men won the first four seasons was not going to work for their brand. So season 4 featured perhaps the best collection of female talent so far, with chefs like Antonia Lofaso and Stephanie Izzard at the head of the pack. But season 4 was talented all-around — perhaps the most purely talented Top Chef season outside of the all-star groupings — and by the mid-point of the season, Tom Colicchio and the Top Chef judges had fallen in love with golden boy Richard Blais, a chef that combined brash classic chef instincts with the cutting-edge molecular gastronomy that had become popular with nerd-boy chefs like Marcel Vigneron and season 3 winner Hung Huynh.
Whether Richard’s aw-shucks demeanor was genuine or not, it made him a huge favorite with the judges and fans of the show. So when he ended up in a final four with Stephanie, Antonia, and underdog Lisa Fernandes, he looked like the odds-on favorite to come out on top. Which is why Stephanie Izzard’s dominant finale march to the championship was so impressive. She took down the judges’ fave by making it impossible to deny her.
